Para Site has the pleasure to present Around Curatorial Practice: What do we do when we curate?, a lecture by art critic, independent curator and Chief Editor of Manifesta Journal Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez. The lecture will draw upon Petrešin-Bachelez’s experience of working at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, a venue for artistic research in the North of Paris, and on the U3 – triennial of contemporary art in Slovenia.

Petrešin-Bachelez will be exploring terms such as “situated artistic research” – implying a research that develops fully its opportunity through adaptation to its environment, or, to measure and experiment with the results of any modifications applied to that environment, which can in turn also modify the research; and “situated curatorial practice” where the need to situate a practice drives the creation of local projects that stand for their “contextual”, “community” or “participative” activity. Development of such projects needs a certain elasticity of time and the privilege of taking time. This is crucial for undoing the protocols of exchanges between the artist, institution and the public (visitors, participants, passers-by), which are set by art institutions, often just on the basis of abstract projections.

Furthermore, reflexivity, which in recent anthropological studies has been appreciated as an act of acknowledging one’s own subjectivity and the part one plays in one’s work, invites us to rethink what do we actually do when we curate. This is the main question around which the new series of Manifesta Journal – Around Curatorial Practices is focused on. The online platform of Manifesta Journal is reconsidering the meanings and the effects of curatorial practices today, focusing on urgent (geo)political, humanistic, queer, instigating and controversial potentialities. The new, encompassing subtitle, “Around Curatorial Practices” marks the trajectory from the previous subtitle, “Journal of Contemporary Curatorship”. The preposition “around” is devoted to what actually moves subjectivities when they adopt the notion of curating as responding to their practices, which are informed by drives, subversions, opacities, risks, desires, beliefs and solidarities.

This event is supported by Asia Art Archive.

Para Site 隆重呈獻「策展實踐縱橫觀—— 策展其實搞乜鬼?」講座，由藝評人、獨立策展人及國際期刊《Manifesta Journal》總編輯 Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez 主講。是次講座將會借鑑講者的工作體驗，包括巴黎北部藝術研究場所 Les aboratoires d’Aubervilliers，以及斯洛文尼亞當代藝術三年展U3。

講者將會探索不同的術語，例如「情境藝術研究」（situated artistic research）和「情境策展實踐」（situated curatorial practice）。前者指向一種研究方式，透過適應環境而全面發展研究計劃的潛能，或測量及體驗所有因應環境而作的修正結果，這些結果往往反過來對研究計劃有所修改；後者則有關以實踐配合情境的需要，這種策展能推動不同本土項目的創建，如「語境」、「社區」及「參與性」的活動。發展這種項目需要充份的時間，並把項目放在時間表的首位。藝術家、機構和大眾（包括訪客、參與者、過路人）之間的潛在交流規則必須撒去，而這種規則通常由藝術機構訂立，往往只是基於抽象的預測之上。

此外，「自反性」（reflexivity，以自己作思考對象）則邀請人重新思考，策展的時候，我們其實應該做甚麼。所謂自反性，近年的人類學研究已將其譽為一種對自己主觀性的行為的認可，亦是作品的第一部份。這正是《Manifesta Journal》最近系列「Around Curatorial Practices」（策展實踐縱橫觀）的焦點議題。《Manifesta Journal》的網上平台正重新思索今天何謂「策展實踐」以及其影響，特別集中在特發（地域）政治、人文、酷兒、煽動性和爭議性的種種潛能。《Manifesta Journal》的全新副題「Around Curatorial Practices」更具包含性，並點出以往副題「Journal of Contemporary Curatorship」（當代策展期刊）的發展軌跡。「縱橫觀」一詞特別集中於人將策展本質訂為回應其實踐時，實際影響主觀性的事物，而種種實踐可以透過不同的意志、分版本、不透明度、風險、慾望、信念和團結程度而顯示出來。

本節目由亞洲藝術文獻庫支持。